For a few years now, I’ve been wishing that acquaintances came with their own “Previously on this series…” trailers. So I was glad to have the chance to read two books about how to ward off dementia, and to test drive them. My story from the New York Times.

I’m honored that a tiny part of the New Yorker’s current “World Changers” issue is devoted to my tangles with the UNTUCKit shirt empire. (I’m not implying that I’m–or that UNTUCKit–is changing the world. I’m merely marveling at the admirable open-mindedness on display when you include a story about shirttail length along with ones about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone and internet celebrities in China.)

-I recently read seven of the new or newish books about boredom (apparently we are in the midst of a literary “boredom boom”) and was not bored. No, wait. I was a tiny bit bored. Not for long, though. My story from the New York Times.

-I recently reviewed the darkly comic novel “The Last Laugh,” by Lynn Freed, for the New York Times Book Review. Opa! (It’s set in Greece).

-The Colin McEnroe Show, the great public radio show out of Connecticut, had me on for their retrospective of the six-month-old Trump presidency.

-Various new organizations allow you to interact with refugees. What should we keep in mind when interacting with these folks? Like, do they want to be called “refugees,” or is that term distasteful to them? My article.

-Here’s a Times story I did about all the new street preachers and huggers-without-portfolio that I’ve seen popping up on the streets post-election. If restaurants and stores can pop up, why can’t the helping professions?

-Emma McGowan at The Bustle asked me if you should “friend” a hook-up or one night stand on Facebook. No.